Bolton: Hulton Park plan refused 'for political reasons'

This month, Bolton Council agreed to pay out more than £470,000 in costs to developers after they successfully launched an appeal to allow them to build an 18-hole golf course and homes in Over Hulton.

At a cabinet meeting, councillors referred to a report by the UK Planning Inspectorate which was scathing about the original decision to reject the bid which is said “no rational authority would have made.”

Cllr Paul Heslop, who represents Kearsley, said: “I’ve read the planning inspectorate report and to say its damning is a bit of an understatement.

The scheme also includes more than 1,000 houses (Image: Peel L&P)

“Everything in that report is highly critical of the decision that this council came to.”

He added: “There was an election less than three months after this decision was made and I’m far from convinced that this decision was based on planning law.

“I suspect that it was made on trying to secure the seats that were affected in the upcoming elections.”

The Hulton Park project had proven to be highly controversial amongst people living in the Over Hulton and Westhoughton areas and was thrown out by planning committee members at a meeting in February last year.

The scheme centres on an attempt to bring the Ryder Cup to Bolton (Image: Peel L&P)

And now Bolton Council has agreed to hand over a total of £467,746.61 to developers Peel L&P to cover the costs of a two-day appeal hearing held last year which ultimately gave them the green light to proceed.

The developers had not asked for costs to be paid, but the UK Planning Inspectorate decided to award them regardless while blasting the decision to refuse the bid.

As Cllr Heslop pointed out, this sum of money was worth the equivalent of £23,000 for every ward in Bolton.

He said: “It is horrifying to think that Kearsley has lost £23,000.”

The project also includes plans for new golfing facilities (Image: Peel L&P)

Other leading figures also agreed that it was likely that politics rather than planning had influenced the costly decision.

Cllr Roger Hayes of Smithills said: “This was bound to be contentious, when we remember that the original application passed by only one vote there was bound to be a lot of opposition to the second one.

“But as I say, I think the reasons for it were not planning reasons, I think they were mainly political reasons.”

The money for the costs will now come from the authority’s corporate reserves and had been negotiated down from a figure originally believed to have been around £700,000.

Addressing the meeting, leader Cllr Nick Peel said: “I think the only thing we do know is that Peel Holdings didn’t put in for costs, whether they were embarrassed about putting in for costs is a matter of opinion.

“But they didn’t put in for costs and the inspector said you’re having costs.”

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Also addressing the meeting, Cllr Andy Morgan said the Hulton Park debate had been one of the most contentious he had known in his 18 years on the planning committee but defended the body’s right to make its own decisions.

He said: “That’s the right of the committee because if they didn’t have that right then we might as well not have a planning committee.”

He added: “I think we have to remember that the officers’ recommendation was to approve this application as it was felt to be a better application than the one that had already been approved."

Cllr Morgan said officers should be commended for 'doing the right thing'.

He added: "But I do defend the right of the planning committee and of ward members to make recommendations to that committee.”